After months of intensive planning by a dynamic group of volunteers, the 17th annual Black History Month Celebration has arrived. This year’s theme is Brooklyn Activism.Talking about activism and what makes someone an activist helps children think about how changes happen in a community. Through a variety of workshops ranging from Food Justice, Animal Rights, Craft Activism, Homeless […]
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. – Winston Churchill The new BFS Upper School — and not just the student body — is beginning its second semester in continuing elegance, openness and style. Please take a moment to enjoy these stunning images captured by photographer Chris Cooper (©2015 by Chris Cooper), courtesy of the Upper […]
This week, BFS observed its traditional Day of Concern by focusing on the Holocaust. In the 1970s, Day of Concern was more focused on BFS, a day for coming together, discussing issues within the school community, and working to better the school community. In 1982, BFS has its May 20, 1982 Day of Concern about […]
Introducing Brooklyn Friends School’s new visual identity is exciting, yet it also makes us fondly recall logos from our past. Let’s take a look back at what can be considered our main logos through the years, beginning with today’s and ending with our earliest-known visual identity. “The Inner Light,” 2014 In our new visual identity, […]
Delighted to follow up last week’s post about the BFS Literary Magazine Collection by adding the years 1961 to 1974. Literary magazines of this period evidence an enormous change in BFS history: the late 1960s to early 1970s, when BFS shifted from a traditional college preparatory model to an incredibly progressive school. While many things led to this institutional […]
All good things are worth waiting for, and our literary magazines are no exception. At this time, the surviving BFS literary magazines from 1926 to 1960 are available in the Literary Magazine Collection of the BFS Digital Archives, along with the 2003 edition of Wordflirt, the present Upper School literary magazine. 1961 to 1974 literary […]
The program of our first commencement, from 1910 BFS has always strived to be compassionate for its community, particularly for its students, both while enrolled at our school and forever after. Compassion is often found at the core of the Quaker Testimonies. One of the nicest BFS archival finds remains the “BFS chapter” from the personal […]
Last month, on the BFS Facebook page, an alumna asked about the BFS Panther, the mascot of the BFS Athletics program. The Panther is relatively new to our athletic program as both our nickname and costumed mascot. BFS Athletic Director David Gardella shared his understanding of the history of the BFS Panther and further information […]
“This Is Our Quiet Time” BFS ordinarily shares brief clips in its Video Archives, but we make an exception this week with the full version of the original BFS musical, Forward to the Past. Written and performed by the BFS community in 1989, Forward to the Past: the Historical Hysterical Follies of Brooklyn Friends School, relates our school’s […]
Breaking ground for the new BFS Upper School: Trustees Brad Mulder ’83 and Lara Holliday, and US Head Bob Bowman What a great moment in the history of our school! We often think of history as something that happened long ago, but we actually make history every day of our lives. Some moments are particularly impactful, […]
Brooklyn Friends School began its 148th school year this month with its traditional convocation. Our opening assembly for older students, held at the Brooklyn Meeting House on Schermerhorn Street, came to be known as convocation in the early 1990s, yet this year’s largest-ever student body required separate convocations for the middle and upper school divisions. […]
1902 saw one of the biggest moments in Brooklyn Friends School history, our third expansion which created the school building still standing today at 112-114 Schermerhorn, now rented by New York Quarterly Meeting to the NYC Board of Education for Brooklyn Frontiers High School. Today it seems amazing that any building could take only about eight […]
